The proportion of personal independence payment (PIP) awards that are increased as the result of a planned review has plummeted threefold in the space of two years, with a particularly steep drop in the most recent quarter. There is no obvious explanation for this fall and it is hidden in official DWP statistics, which only give a five year rolling average.
Fewer than one in fifteen planned review claimants saw an increase in their award in the latest quarter for which figures are available – November 2025 to January 2026 - falling from around one in ten for the same period last year and around one in five for the same period two years ago.
In the last five years, the percentage of awards that have been increased as a result of a planned review has never fallen below 10%, except for two months: July 2025 when it fell to 8.33% and November 2024 when the figure was 9.9%.
Yet in the most recent quarter for which statistics have been provided, all three months saw increases for fewer than 10% of planned award reviews:
Nov 7.93%
Dec 5.41%
Jan 5.99%
This gives an average over the quarter of 6.44% of claimants getting an increase.
The same quarter last year (Nov 24 to Jan 25), saw 10.16% of claimants get an increase in their awards.
For the year before (Nov 23 to Jan 24), the figure was 20.9%.
Overall, changes to the results of planned award reviews have been very marked over the last two years, with a strong increase in the percentage of awards that stay the same and a much smaller percentage of winners and losers.
In the latest quarter, 3.34% of claimants got a lower award, 3.56% last year and 8.6% the year before that.
And in the latest quarter 78.2% of claimants got the same award following a planned review, 76.3% a year before and 53.2% two years before.
Yet none of this is apparent from the official quarterly PIP statistics. Because the DWP only give a five year rolling average, their latest statistics for planned award reviews show (our figures are in brackets):
Award increased 15% (latest quarter actually 6.4%)
Award maintained 63% (latest quarter actually 78.2%)
Award decreased 6% (latest quarter actually 3.34%)
On the positive side, this means planned award reviews are becoming less risky for claimants. If the current rates continue, almost eight out of ten will see their award unchanged and only one in thirty will get a lower award.
But many claimants have conditions that deteriorate over time. And many of those claimants would rather wait for a planned award review than risk upsetting things by requesting a change of circumstances review, even when they believe they should now be entitled to a higher rate of PIP.
There has been no change in the law that would account for the fall in increased awards. Nor has there been any change in publicly available guidance for assessors or decision makers that would account for it. But, unquestionably, something has changed to account for such a significant and continued fall.
All statistics were obtained from the DWPs Stat-Xplore tool
